50 states, 50 marathons: One Wheaton runner’s 22-year pursuit
When Wheaton resident Paul Mansour ran the Chicago Marathon for the first time in 2002, he didn’t know yet that it would be the beginning of a 22-year journey that would take him to every corner of the United States.
Inspired by that race and by other runners he had read about, Mansour set a goal for himself. He wanted to run 50 marathons in 50 states.
The goal would be good for his mental and physical health and would allow him to see the country, something Mansour, who grew up in Hoffman Estates, did not get the chance to do during his childhood and teenage years.
Now, the finish line is in sight. Mansour, now 52, will be heading to Anchorage, Alaska, to run the Anchorage Mayor’s Marathon on June 22 — his 50th state marathon, and the 50th anniversary of the Anchorage race.
“I’m super thrilled,” Mansour said. “I want to celebrate like winning a championship.”
Mansour’s family — his wife, Kerry Mansour, his four children and his mom — will all be making the trip to Alaska. The Mansours have planned past family trips around state marathons in places like Kona, Hawaii and Orlando, Florida.
Kerry Mansour called Paul’s journey “a gift” — something that, instead of interfering with their lives, instead gave them amazing experiences and time spent together on trips as a couple or as a whole family.
“The family part brings chills to me when I think about it,” Paul Mansour said. “It’s so cool for my kids to grow up to see me do something that’s a big challenge, has been very difficult and has taken a long time to do.”
Mansour has spent much of the last 22 years running on the Illinois Prairie Path, a 61-mile trail that in the 1960s was converted from railways and runs through Wheaton and the surrounding areas. People he has met on the path have become lifelong friends and running buddies, who have raced some of his marathons with him and cheered him on during others.
“He’s using it to embellish his whole life,” said Chris Levine, a former Wheaton resident who has raced with Mansour in Chicago, Indiana and Colorado. “He’s used the marathons to make friends and to keep up with friends … He’s really just made it a part of his life, and he’s sort of made it look easy.”
This marathon, Mansour has a fundraising goal of $10,000 for the V Foundation, a cancer research charity founded by the late college basketball player and coach Jim Valvano, who died of cancer at 47. This is Mansour’s first marathon-related fundraising effort, and something he said he was “honored” to do. People can donate through a link on his website at runpaul.com.
Mansour said he chose to raise money for the V Foundation because of how many people cancer has affected and because of Valvano’s competitive spirit that Mansour said he related to.
“He is a very determined person, he’s a goal-setter,” Kerry Mansour said. “He’s very passionate about whatever it is that he’s doing.”
That determination has taken Mansour to races in small towns like Huntington, West Virginia, and big cities like New York City and San Francisco. At every location, Mansour said, he has met amazing people, learned amazing things and seen amazing sights.
“We have so much more in common than not,” Mansour said. “At the end of the day, we’re all Americans and we love our country, and when we get to know each other, we love each other.”
After he crosses the finish line in Anchorage, Mansour said he may turn his attention to marathons on every continent or a biking journey across the U.S.
But right now, with personal bests in the past and a plan for his children to run the final miles of the race alongside him, Mansour said he wants to end the journey how he started it in Chicago all those years ago — just finishing the race.
“When you have a goal this long, to be able to have really formal closure and to have everyone with him to celebrate will be really, really great,” Kerry Mansour said. “It’s been quite an epic journey, and I’m so proud of him.”